Photograph copyright © 2005 World Chess Championship Press.

Veselin Topalov
Number of games in database: 1,484
Years covered: 1988 to 2008
Current FIDE rating: 2777
Highest rating achieved in database: 2813
Overall record: +425 -242 =546 (57.5%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games
      Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.
      271 exhibition games, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS
With the White pieces:  Sicilian (149)      B90 B33 B48 B46 B32  Ruy Lopez (91)      C88 C84 C78 C92 C67  Ruy Lopez, Closed (54)      C88 C84 C92 C87 C90  French Defense (44)      C11 C10 C18 C19 C02  Queen's Indian (43)      E15 E17 E16 E12  King's Indian (41)      E94 E92 E97 E76 E91	With the Black pieces:  Sicilian (216)      B90 B33 B51 B22 B30  Sicilian Najdorf (86)      B90 B92 B91 B93 B97  King's Indian (67)      E92 E97 E94 E81 E60  Queen's Pawn Game (56)      A46 E10 E00 A40 A41  Modern Benoni (52)      A57 A70 A58 A61 A67  Ruy Lopez (50)      C78 C67 C65 C88 C69

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
   Topalov vs Aronian, 2006 1-0
   Anand vs Topalov, 2005 1/2-1/2
   Topalov vs Anand, 2005 1-0
   Topalov vs Kramnik, 2008 1-0
   Topalov vs Ponomariov, 2005 1-0
   Topalov vs Kasparov, 1996 1-0
   Kharlov vs Topalov, 2004 0-1
   Kramnik vs Topalov, 2005 0-1
   Topalov vs Anand, 2005 1/2-1/2
   Svidler vs Topalov, 2005 0-1

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: [what is this?]
   FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2001)
   Kramnik-Topalov World Championship Match (2006)

GAME COLLECTIONS: [what is this?]
   Topalov! by larrewl
   Topalov great games by Topzilla
   Topalov and the two bishops by OJC
   Najdorf, English Attack by AdrianP
   Najdorf - 6. Be3 by pcmvtal
   AdrianP's Bookmarked Games (2005) by AdrianP
   Topalov at Mtel Tournament by Topzilla
   WCC Index [Dortmund 2002] by suenteus po 147
   Topalov attacks! by MoonlitKnight
   Bulgarians beat world champions by todki

Search Sacrifice Explorer for Veselin Topalov
Search Google^® for Veselin Topalov

VESELIN TOPALOV (born Mar-15-1975) Bulgaria [what is this?] Veselin Topalov was born March 15, 1975, in Ruse, Bulgaria. He learned chess at eight years old and six years later won the World Under-14 championship in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. In 1990 he won a silver medal in the World Under-16 Championship in Singapore and became a grandmaster two years later. In 1996 he took a series of top-level tournament wins--Amsterdam in March, Madrid and Dos Hermanas in May, Novgorod in July, Vienna in August--to firmly establish himself among the world's leading players. Topalov participated in four of FIDE's knockout World Championship events. His best result came in 2004, when he reached the quarterfinals before being eliminated by the eventual champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov. He also took part in the 2002 Dortmund Candidates' tournament to determine a challenger for the world classical champion Vladimir Kramnik, but lost the finals match to the Hungarian Peter Leko. He began 2005 by climbing to third place on FIDE's world ranking list, then upheld this position by tying for first at the Linares supertournament with Garry Kasparov. Two months later he won the inaugural MTel Masters (2005) event by a full point over Viswanathan Anand. In Argentina that October, he put on a dominating performance to win the FIDE World Chess Championship (2005), finishing a point and a half ahead of his nearest rivals. He followed up that victory with +5 and joint first at Corus Wijk aan Zee (2006). Although he now lives in Spain, Topalov still plays for Bulgaria and has enjoyed several athletic honors from his native country, including the Sportsman of the Year award for 2005. After Kasparov's retirement he topped the FIDE World Rating List from April 2006 to January 2007. In 2006 he lost his title to Vladimir Kramnik in a unification match played in Elista, under the auspices of FIDE. He rebounded to finish equal first at Corus (2007), but then a poor performance at Linares-Morelia (2007) caused him to lose his #1 spot in the world rankings to Anand.

page 1 of 60; games 1-25 of 1,484  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. Lizbov vs Topalov 0-1 29 1988 Moskau B92 Sicilian, Najdorf, Opocensky Variation 2. Topalov vs E Gonsior ½-½ 11 1988 Forli D55 Queen's Gambit Declined 3. A Strikovic vs Topalov 0-1 31 1988 Forli op B22 Sicilian, Alapin 4. C Garcia-Palermo vs Topalov ½-½ 37 1988 Forli A41 Queen's Pawn Game (with ...d6) 5. P Votruba vs Topalov ½-½ 66 1988 Forli B06 Robatsch 6. De Eccher vs Topalov 0-1 67 1988 Forli A25 English 7. Topalov vs F Braga ½-½ 14 1988 10s, Forli op [Hiarcs 7.32 D19 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav, Dutch 8. Topalov vs Meduna   ½-½ 21 1988 Forli D18 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav, Dutch 9. Topalov vs Granda-Zuniga 0-1 46 1988 Forli op 88\10 A78 Benoni, Classical with ...Re8 and ...Na6 10. Topalov vs G Minchev 0-1 54 1988 Sofia B57 Sicilian 11. Topalov vs R Mantovani 1-0 59 1988 Forli E12 Queen's Indian 12. Topalov vs V Lukov 0-1 27 1988 Sofia A61 Benoni 13. Topalov vs Serper 1-0 40 1989 Groningen A53 Old Indian 14. T Luther vs Topalov 1-0 59 1989 Groningen B98 Sicilian, Najdorf 15. D Donchev vs Topalov 1-0 19 1989 Ch BLG C04 French, Tarrasch, Guimard Main line 16. Topalov vs D Pedzich   ½-½ 41 1989 Groningen E73 King's Indian 17. Dreev vs Topalov ½-½ 17 1989 Groningen (Netherlands) A52 Budapest Gambit 18. Hracek vs Topalov ½-½ 63 1989 Groningen A22 English 19. Topalov vs Fogarasi   ½-½ 23 1989 Ch Europe (juniors) D39 Queen's Gambit Declined, Ragozin, Vienna Variation 20. Topalov vs A J Norris 1-0 35 1989 Groningen B06 Robatsch 21. Shirov vs Topalov 1-0 24 1989 Corus Chess Tournament B81 Sicilian, Scheveningen, Keres Attack 22. G Minchev vs Topalov 1-0 47 1989 Sofia A46 Queen's Pawn Game 23. M Stangl vs Topalov 0-1 23 1989 Arnhem Ech-jr A88 Dutch, Leningrad, Main Variation with c6 24. Topalov vs D Agnos 1-0 44 1989 Ch Europe (juniors) E98 King's Indian, Orthodox, Taimanov, 9.Ne1 25. Topalov vs T Demirel 1-0 40 1989 Groningen D51 Queen's Gambit Declined  page 1 of 60; games 1-25 of 1,484    REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Topalov wins | Topalov loses

Save 20% on New in Chess Magazine

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 633 OF 633 ·  Later Kibitzing > Sep-13-08    Jafar219: Congratulations to Topalov for his great performance at Bilbao. Sep-13-08    Cactus: <Woody> I don't get you. Everyone knows you hate Kramnik. But on the Anand page you say things about how terrible he is with his performance in Bilboa, and on this page you say you think Topalov is bad. Do you just hate everyone? Sep-13-08    Augalv: Today I heard Topalov's interview (in Spanish) with Leontxo Garcia after his victory over Ivanchuk. I was surprised to hear him respond to Garcia's first question in Spanish, I was expecting an English interview, but I was even more surprised by Topalvo's Spanish, it's perfect. I'm impressed! Sep-13-08    Voltaic: yes, it's almost a pleasure to hear them both Topalov and Anand express themselves in an amazingly correct spanish. to me the surprise was hearing Ivanchuk speaking spanish! not so perfect but with that unique Chucky touch with a lot of gestures and a strong slave accent :) Sep-13-08    hand banana: he lives in spain, his spanish i much better than his english Sep-13-08    ughaibu: Really? He can communicate with humans? Sep-13-08    fananandfan: Topalov is back to the no. 1 position in the world. I feel his fall was psychological. He's definitely a toughie and one gets a feeling that he'll move even higher. Definitely 2800 + very soon. Sep-13-08    ughaibu: Higher than number one. . . oh well, I guess you're a Topalov fan. Sep-13-08    ILikeFruits: toppy is... so cool... i like... his... clothes... i want them... Sep-13-08    dexterious: <Higher than number one. . . oh well, I guess you're a Topalov fan.> As he said immediately afterwards, it meant going 2800+. Can't read or comprehend properly? ... oh well, I guess you're a Kramnik fan. Sep-13-08    Whitehat1963: Currently, Topalov is Tops: http://chess.liverating.org/ Sep-13-08    chancho: I don't know if it's true, but if Danailov gets half of Vesko's earnings... Sep-14-08    Bons92: Why should Danailov try to get an andvantage for Topalov? Sorry for my ignorance but I've strarted following top chess only 4 months ago Sep-14-08    badest: <chancho: I don't know if it's true, but if Danailov gets half of Vesko's earnings...> It it a rumor, but it may very well be true. In any case, Topa earns enough money for both of them... :) ... plus, Danailov is always active when it comes to chasing sponsors, etc. Sep-14-08    ILikeFruits: the truth... is on the... eye of the... beholder... expand... your... horizon... Sep-14-08    talisman: do you know any johnny cash? Sep-14-08    ILikeFruits: who is jonny cash... Sep-14-08    whiteshark: <ILikeFruits> Maybe you know him as Johnny Cashew? ... Sep-14-08    ILikeFruits: ok... Sep-14-08    Ezzy: <ILikeFruits: who is jonny cash...> Jonny Cash is the change from a durex vending machine :-) Sep-14-08    unsound: Here's your answer: http://images.google.com/imgres?img... Sep-14-08    Augalv: "Why should Danailov try to get an andvantage for Topalov?" With regard to Danailov getting half of Topalov's earnings I don't know how much of that is true but I think Topalov is old enough to decide who his manager is going to be and what kind of contrat to sign with him. Jump directly to page #    (enter number from 1 to 633) < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 633 OF 633 ·  Later Kibitzing >

NOTE: You need to pick a username and password to post a reply. Getting your account takes less than a minute, totally anonymous, and 100% free--plus, it entitles you to features otherwise unavailable. Pick your username now and join the chessgames community! If you already have an account, you should login now.

Please observe our posting guidelines: No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language. No spamming, advertising, or duplicating posts. No personal attacks against other users. Nothing in violation of United States law. See something which violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform an administrator. NOTE: Keep all discussion on the topic of this page. This forum is for this specific player and nothing else. If you want to discuss chess in general, or this site, you might try the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors.